Pacific Coast Highway - Britz

Three nights and 785 kilometres in a loop from Auckland in a campervan, out to the Coromandel and south through the geothermal country.

Thames and Coromandel Town come first on the peninsula, old gold and kauri towns, then Hot Water Beach, where a hot spring rises under the sand for two hours either side of low tide and visitors dig their own pools in it, which is as odd and as enjoyable as it sounds.

Paeroa, Tauranga and Mount Maunganui follow, the last with a volcanic cone at the end of a sandspit that can be walked up in under an hour for the view along the Bay of Plenty. Rotorua comes next, where the ground steams, the geysers play at Te Puia and the Maori cultural institutions are the oldest in the country, then Lake Taupo, which fills a caldera left by one of the largest eruptions of the last few thousand years. Hamilton and Hobbiton close the loop, the latter a preserved film set on a working sheep farm.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Four days for 785 kilometres is a brisk pace with this much on the route, so something gets skipped. The highway is sealed throughout and the driving is straightforward. Hobbiton runs guided tours only and sells out in summer, and Hot Water Beach works to the tide table rather than to the itinerary.